CHAPTER III. 



EXPLANATION OF FIGURES AND CHARACTERS ON PLATES 

 XX-XXIII OF THE MANUSCRIPT TROANO AND 25-28 OF 

 THE DRESDEN CODEX. 



As heretofore stated, the figures that occupy the spaces on Plates XX- 

 XXIII^ appear to relate, in part at least, to the close and commencement of 

 the more important periods of time. I have already given my reasons for 

 believing that the blue figure in the upper compartment of Plate XXIII 

 represents an Ahau, and that the piercing of the eye with the dagger sig- 

 nifies that the last year of the period has arrived and is about to close. 



Referring to Landa's Relacion de Cosas §§ XXXV-XXXVIII, I find the 

 following account of the religious festivals which occurred during the inter- 

 calated or closing days of the old and the commencement of the new year, 

 each of the four years, Kan, Muluc, Ix, and Cauac, having its own peculiar 

 ceremonies. 



As this is really the key to the explanation of the figui-es on the four 

 plates mentioned, I quote his statement in full, translated from Brasseur's 

 French, giving the original Spanish in Appendix No. \. 



" XXXV. — Fetes of supplemental days — Sacrifices of the commencement of the 

 netv year of the siyn Kan. 



"It was the custom in all the cities of Yucatan that there should be at 

 each of the four entrances of the place — that is to say, the east, west, north, 

 and south — two heaps of stone facing each other, intended for the celebra- 

 tion of two feasts of unlucky days. These feasts took place in the following 

 manner: 



'The reader is reminded again tbat Plates XX-XXIII of tUe Manuscript arc the same as our 

 Plates I-IV, a fact which will not lie repeated hereafter in the text. 



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